


In the Air

by AngelOfDeath10



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Lemon, Quarantine 2020, Romance, Tumblr Prompt, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:35:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26170519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelOfDeath10/pseuds/AngelOfDeath10
Summary: House sitting was supposed to be a little favor to her favorite pint sized friend as Misao went to honeymoon in paradise.  However, Kaoru didn't expect to have to shelter in place, nor was she counting on an unwilling loose vector in the form of her across the way neighbor.
Relationships: Kamiya Kaoru/Yukishiro Enishi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	In the Air

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: characters are not mine! frankly I wish the scenario was a fiction as well.
> 
> This is for you SharkAria! I offered you a gift prompt and you chose "quarantine 2020, as close to ghost pepper heat as possible". I don't know if it's ghost pepper, but I did try to up my game a little for you from my usual pepperchini.

Kaoru was grateful Misao wasn’t the kind of person to keep a cat. Given the situation as it stood, if she had been responsible for feeding another mouth in addition to her own she would have had some serious angst about the fact that she was already feeding herself exceedingly poorly. She had ordered masks, all but one sitting untouched in their sealed packages, as she wasn’t yet ready to admit that she needed to get groceries but pickings were getting slim. Last night dinner had been a few teaspoons of very hard peanut butter from the bottom of the jar in the fridge and some maraschino cherries. The cherries were a desperation bid for both sugar and a greater feeling of fullness, neither of which were actually satisfied.

Picking up her phone, worrying her finger against the hairline crack on the bottom left corner before swiping open her text conversation with her brother, Kaoru tried to will Yahiko to say something to her. Every day of doing increasingly aggressive yoga in front of bad cable TV was exhausting and Kaoru was desperate for some semblance of human contact. Misao and Soujirou’s honeymoon had been extended into next month instead of its original three weeks, which in of itself had been a minor miracle given Souji’s caseload. They were halfway across the world in Okinawa, Japan, and even if paradise didn’t have any cases, the international airports sure did. Housesitting had gone from nice vacation from her brother to a shelter in place nightmare in just a couple weeks.

Her other best friend Megumi was impossible to get ahold of now that she was pretty much working as often as there was PPE at her hospital to hand her, but Kaoru had told her she expected at least one text a day with her covid status if nothing else. The nightly “negative” had been a bastion of sanity for her. Misao would send emails every night, and even some pictures of her and her new husband with their masks on visiting beautiful empty beaches from the inside of a rental car. Kaoru could feel Souji’s eyerolls a world away but Misao was not going to let a little thing like a pandemic cancel her honeymoon entirely even if her enjoyment had to be through glass. 

Yahiko, useless brother extraordinaire, was home all day now either doing his remote college classes or on video chat with Tsubame. Kaoru couldn’t compete. 

The harsh knock on her door had Kaoru jumping with anticipation and dread both, and she muted the TV before pushing off her yoga mat on the floor. Running around to find the Lysol and her recently washed mask, she steeled herself for what was to come. Holding the Lysol like someone might the only weapon between themselves and an unseen enemy, she brought her eye up to the peephole and tried to control her breathing through the damp fabric. No one was there, but she could see the edge of a paper bad and cursed loudly in the otherwise quiet condo. This had happened last week as well and she knew exactly what this was about.

Throwing open the door, and dropping the Lysol just inside, Kaoru grumbled to no one. “You’d think people would read the damn note…” she began to drag the bags full of groceries down the short hallway to the only other condo on the fifth floor. Soujirou had prided himself on securing a modern and yet very traditional sort of property in a renovated historical building. Every floor housed only two spacious units and there were only seven stories so it was easily secured. Only the old and the rich were able to afford this much space for themselves in the city, and all of them valued privacy.

You’d think this Yukishiro character would have realized that the grocery delivery he was getting was going to the wrong unit. Kaoru knocked on the door, at first a few polite jabs, then with increasing frequency as she realized he wasn’t answering. It was awkward shifting from bare foot to bare foot on the expensive mosaic tiles of the hallway and waiting for an answer. If he wasn’t going to read the note then she would just tell him. Hammering away with greater force, the sudden opening of the door only gave her enough time to flatten out the fist which was about to punch the very bare chest of the man in front of her.

Her flattened palm made a wet smack against a sweaty pectoral and Kaoru made an “o” of horror behind her cloth mask. Cold eyes that seemed to shift from green to blue as his pupils constricted in the harsh hallway lighting comparative to the low light of his apartment behind him only focused in her in specific when he brought small glasses to his face. She had run into him—six feet apart—a few times collecting mail from the mailbox next to his so she knew a bit of what to expect. The deep frown was a matter of course, but the body made for sin hadn’t been what she thought was laying under his track suits and sweats.

“Mr. Yukishiro—I—groceries---wrong, um…” Kaoru snatched back her hand and cradled it as if she had been burned while her traitorous eyes followed a bead of sweat from his neck down his chest and abs. Taking in a deep breath while he regarded her with passive displeasure, she forced the thought out she had been repeating to herself the past minutes before she assaulted her neighbor. “Your grocery service has, um, delivered your food to the wrong apartment again.” His glance flicked down to the paper bags in a neat line next to the door and then travelled up seemingly slowly from her bare feet, over her yoga pants, and skimming past the sliver of midriff in her tank top before meeting her eyes. The corner of his mouth quirked for a hot second.

At first, he didn’t seem like he was going to say anything, so Kaoru took the hint and turned around on her heel to head back to her friends’ condo. She wished her hair was long enough in her ponytail to flick the jerk’s nose. He could at least acknowledge her good deed. She hadn't even filched a single steak even though she was dying for something to eat. But then a smooth tenor arrested her in her path.

“It seems, Ms. Kamiya, we’ve broken quarantine.” She rolled her eyes, but that didn’t get her to turn around the same way his next comment did. “I expect a full account of all your contacts from the last two weeks before the end of the day.”

Turning around, hangry and more than a little annoyed that she was somehow the bad guy in all this, Kaoru waggled a finger at him. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but our morning encounters at the mailbox are literally the only human contact I’ve had in weeks. Your delivery service is probably more dangerous than having inconveniently touched my skin!” She had touched him, technically, but she knew that wouldn’t have had the same ring to it. “And come to think of it, how do you even know who I am? You haven’t said two words to me.”

Rather than answering her question, the man simply reiterated his earlier directive. “Then it shouldn’t be difficult to outline.”

It would have been tempting to stomp a foot, but in bare feet she’d only hurt herself so Kaoru had satisfy herself with slamming the door to the condo behind her. With a peek back in the peephole she saw Yukishiro methodically bring his groceries into his apartment and get back to what was no doubt a vigorous exercise routine. She wiped her hand off on the side of her pants as if she could still feel the moisture of him, and had to stifle a rough impulse to sniff her hand.

Ok, clearly going crazy from hunger. Tearing into a new mask, she swore that after she took a shower she was going to finally go to a store for real even if the thought sent her into a panic spiral. She was mad enough from Yukishiro’s high handed demand to finally push the panic aside. Surely with some of the cash Misao and Soujirou had left she could find something to eat at the stores. Even if the news said there was no flour, yeast, or toilet paper to be had it wasn’t like she about to try baking anything.

*

*

*

The imperious knock at 8am could only be one person, and Kaoru adjusted her mask on her face before answering the door. She may have been in a yellow robe she was borrowing from Misao that was so short on her that her tiny pajama bottoms looked like they didn’t exist, but she hadn’t even had her tea yet and if Yukishiro was going to be like this then she refused to be embarrassed.

“What?” She answered with all the grace she figured the man deserved, as she brushed fingers through her loose black hair and rolled her eyes for effect.

He looked astonishingly good considering he was in clothes that would be more suited to a gym. Loose sweat pants still hugged thighs that she no doubt could crack rocks on, and Kaoru forced her eyes to narrow as if his proximity didn’t make her heart hammer. Hormones were stupid, and liars. This man was nothing like a good idea even if he was a snack. At least he bothered to wear a mask today, like a decent person.

“You did not deliver on our agreed list of contacts.” He thrust a piece of paper at her, which she snatched and considered spraying Lysol on before deciding that being petty wasn’t worth the precious chemicals. Besides, she had used more than she would have liked to clean the groceries and the thought of needing to prepare a bleach mixture in a bucket sounded annoying and messy. Better to save the spray.

Kaoru scanned his double sided offering, realizing when she slide her fingers over it there were multiple pages. “Oh my god did you list this by HOUR? And all of these people say ‘redacted’ instead of names. How the hell is this helpful? What kind of contact tracer could use this?”

“If you looked more carefully, Ms. Kamiya, you’ll note their covid status has been written above where their name would be. All are negative. I expect the same courtesy.”

“Well I’m not writing down a word. If you want to know what I’ve been doing I guess I could summarize it if you want to wait for me to have some tea this morning. I guess you could have some too, if you want.” This was not her. Kaoru was a gracious hostess, welcoming even under duress, but this Yukishiro character made her itchy to start a fight. “Hmmm?”

She took a step back and folded her arms, papers crumpling slightly in her tightened grip. Under the mask she smirked, sure that the man would turn around on the heel of his expensive looking trainers and leave her to her morning routine. But after a moment, in which Kaoru counted a single eyeblink from her neighbor, he was striding inside and pulling off his mask.

“What do you think you’re—”

“I think we’re past the point of casual vectors, Ms. Kamiya. I’ll take the tea.”

Kaoru grimaced and refused to take her own mask off as she flounced back to the kitchen to pull down some of black tea she used to wake up with. She heard the door shut, but otherwise her houseguest was silent. Luckily, there had been plenty of tea to be had at the store when she had gone shopping. The cupboards were full of granola, dried fruit and nuts, and lots of sauces and noodles but there was nothing instant left in a mile radius and the idea of cooking something besides eggs was filling her with dread. The hot water kettle clicked as she warmed up the water for the second time this morning and pulled down a couple mugs, making sure she gave Yukishiro the chipped one with the sarcastic saying on it about work.

Realizing she probably shouldn’t leave the blackguard unsupervised in a home that wasn’t her own, she suddenly rushed out with a cup in each hand and nearly smacked into the dining room table in her haste. A little hot water spilled over onto her thumb and Kaoru hissed but maintained her hold. Yukishiro was casually staring out a window and as he turned around to accept the tea with an arched brow, Kaoru finally swept off her mask to march back and sit a table length away from him.

Yukishiro sniffed the tea and Kaoru braced herself for some snotty comment about preferring loose leaf, but to her shock he took a sip and then turned to sit at the other end of the table. “I’m still waiting for an account of the past two weeks, Ms. Kamiya.”

“Oh, right.” No small talk, no criticism. Maybe she was just projecting a bad temper onto this man. The more she thought on it, the more it seemed like she was the capricious one. “Well, I don’t need a whole page to explain it. I wake up, I check my email, I watch bad cable TV and do yoga until I get bored enough to harass my brother about taking care of the house while I’m gone, then I play dumb word games on my phone until it’s back to TV and yoga.”

That stare of his could bore holes in walls.

“Seriously, other than going to the store once yesterday I haven’t seen or talked to a human being in the past two weeks other than you. I tried to say good morning to you at the mailboxes about a week ago. Otherwise, I hide out in the stairwell until people leave so I can get the mail as well.”

Leaning back in the chair, posture slightly softening even if his expression was still a study in disapproval, Yukishiro took another sip of his tea. “Tell me more about this store trip.”

It wasn’t an unreasonable request. Kaoru shifted on the still cold seat of the chair and thought back to her harrowing journey to the store. “Well, I stood in line to get in and there were exes on the sidewalk that kept everyone six feet apart. I had a mask on the whole time, and some rubber gloves I found under the kitchen sink. Then after I got my groceries I disinfected my food and myself in the hallway and came in and washed all my clothes. I swear to you no one is taking this more seriously than I am.” And because she couldn’t help but say it. “You’re the one that answered the door yesterday without a mask on.” Or a shirt.

“I gave anyone knocking plenty of time to vacate the hallway. I wasn’t expecting anything other than a delivery of food.”

That seriously annoyed Kaoru. “And I suppose everything goes as you expect it to? The world just aligns according to your will?”

Yukishiro pushed his half drunk now oversteeped tea away from him and narrowed his eyes in her direction. “Yes, typically.”

Rather than get mad, Kaoru burst out laughing. “For god’s sake, you must lead a charmed life then!”

“Not how I would describe it. I’ve worked hard to create a situation where I possess the means to dictate my future.” He clearly didn’t like her mockery. “If this was all you had to say to me, you could have said it at the door. I have business to conduct.”

Kaoru stood up after he did and followed him to the door, feeling a little bit bad for how she had treated him. He wasn’t being outright mean or even that unreasonable, she just didn’t like the how of his manner rather than the why of it.

“Since we have to keep tabs on one another for the next couple weeks, just in case, it would be nice if I had your whole name. I know a contact tracer isn’t going accept ‘Redacted Yukishiro.’ You seem to know mine already…”

“Enishi.” Was his curt reply. “And Seta provided me with the details of your residency as a courtesy because he understands the need for giving people information that’s pertinent to their immediate surroundings. There could have been consequences if I saw a stranger frequenting the hallway with no explanation.”

Kaoru should have figured Soujirou would do something like that. Misao didn’t think that way, and neither did Kaoru. Seeing a stranger around the block was usually an opportunity to get to know someone, not suspect them of something nefarious. “Well, Enishi, hopefully I’ll have no need darken your doorstep again.”

Giving him an extra wide smile full of slightly false cheer, she waved him out. If she rushed to the peephole to get a view of the back of him making his way back to his apartment, that was between her and her tea.

*

*

*

Two days. That is precisely how long Kaoru had managed to go without seeing Enishi Yukishiro. And she had really thought she had seen the last of him, but somehow when she was staring at the eggs she had bought her mind kept wandering to the sacks and sacks of meat that she had shifted towards his apartment. Clearly to keep a musculature like that you needed protein, and probably protein supplements as well, but surely he could spare a few pieces of bacon? After all, there had been none at the store when she had gone, not even the fancy expensive stuff. You never knew what there would be a shortage of, Yahiko had warned her. For instance, near their house he hadn’t been able to find any normal pasta, but there had been a bunch of weird gluten free pastas that he had taken a chance on. Which Kaoru now got to hear about how gross they were every video chat they had in the evening. Because heaven forbid Yahiko learn how to do more than boil water, though Kaoru wasn’t really one to talk when it came to cooking prowess.

And it wasn’t like she would simply take some bacon, she was ready to offer a trade. She just had no idea what a man like Enishi could possibly want that she had to offer. He didn’t seem like a junk food guy, but she had bought some really nice chocolate as a treat and she was willing to share. Who didn’t like chocolate?

True to form, she knocked and waited, then knocked and waited again. Having taken at least some of her words to heart, he did answer the door with a mask on, but his glasses immediately fogged from his sigh when he saw who it was grinning awkwardly in the hallway.

“You don’t look sick.”

“Hello to you, too!” She was here to ask a favor so she tamped down her instant irritation. “I figured since we’re together in this quarantine business and all, maybe you’d have some spirit of community and I could barter with you for a few pieces of the bacon I’m sure you had to freeze. Either that or your fridge is 100% stocked with meat.”

A silver eyebrow cocked at ‘together’, but those aquamarine eyes of his weren’t flashing pure dismissal so she took that as a partial invitation to continue. She pulled at the boatneck of her shirt so that it wasn’t sliding down one shoulder as it was wont to do, and brushed some hair that had gotten loose from her ponytail behind her neck as she steeled herself.

“I can trade you one half of a large premium chocolate bar for five slices of bacon.”

He didn’t look impressed.

“Ok, half a chocolate bar and a small ziplock of cashews.”

The glasses on his face fogged with another sigh, and he suddenly ripped the mask off, seemingly done with its interference. “I don’t want your food, Kamiya.” He turned and stalked back into his suite of rooms, but he left the door open so as she heard a fridge door unseal she assumed he was actually complying with her request. Taking the open front door as an oblique invitation, she stepped inside his fortress.

It was dark. Blinds were drawn and there was a low hum from a back room where artificial light was flickering. Either a TV room or a computer room probably. The floor plan was a mirror of Misao and Souji’s place so she looked to where the living room was and saw a low table and bookshelves, whereas the dining room was imposing with dark uncomfortable looking chairs and a long table. It was hard to imagine someone like Enishi entertaining any group for dinner. Everything was clean and other than the books there wasn’t anything that indicated anything other than a utilitarian approach to life. There wasn’t even any art on the walls.

There were the sounds of someone rummaging around in a very full freezer as the distinct hollow plops of things falling to the floor practically echoed in the mostly empty space, and Kaoru smiled to herself imagining how Enishi was no doubt deeply fed up about now. He didn’t swear the way Kaoru would have, he seemed to pride himself on his control. Taking a few steps towards the bookcase while he was likely occupied stuffing the freezer, she noticed there were a lot of books in what looked to be Chinese along with various serious sounding authors and a smattering of technical manuals about computers and programming. Bending down, she saw there were books on calligraphy and wondered if he dabbled.

“Here’s your bacon,”

Kaoru hadn’t heard him approach and gave a little shriek as she shot up and twirled around. He was far closer than she had anticipated, well closer than six feet, and self consciously she pulled at her boatneck which had once again fallen askew before she held out her hands for the frozen package of meat. 

“Are you sure you want to give me all of this? I only need a few pieces.”

“I have adequate supplies and I can easily procure more.” 

Hugging the frozen package to herself, she immediately pushed it away as it encountered her oddly heated skin. That hadn’t felt very nice at all.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything I can offer you that you’d accept for this?”

Something around his eye and a muscle near the corner of his mouth seemed to be twitching and Kaoru wasn’t sure if he was trying to suppress a smile or a frown or some unholy mix of the two. It seemed she had finally worn out her welcome in any case.

“Well, I owe you one in any case. This is means a lot to me right now, you know.”

At the mention of owing him a favor she felt his body language ease, as if this were more familiar ground somehow. The idea that he was in any kind of business of exchanging favors for things was an intriguing one. Standing here and making small talk about his hobbies or his work didn’t seem like something he was about to encourage, so she said a polite goodbye and headed towards the still open door bouncing the ice-cold bacon from hand to hand.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be bothering you anymore after this.”

“Given your track record, Ms. Kamiya…”

Kaoru wasn’t about to let his snide comment ruin her good mood, not with bacon in her future. Even singed bacon was pretty good, so she wasn’t likely to mess it up so badly it was inedible. It was like pizza in that respect. “You might as well call me Kaoru at this point. I mean, you’ve definitely seen me closer to my worst than just about anyone but family.”

That didn’t elicit any comment as he slowly but surely shut his door in her face.

*

*

*

It was a little more than three days after the gifting of the bacon when Kaoru realized she was going to lose her mind if she didn’t interact with a human being. Loosely speaking, that robot that called himself Enishi Yukishiro counted, so while she fully expected him to say absolutely and without a doubt that she was out of her mind she still found herself knocking, and waiting, and knocking, and waiting.

“Kamiya.” In some sort of forest green branded zipper hoodie and godawful burnt umber athletic pants with a white stripe he should have been a walking fashion disaster and instead he made it look rather interesting. Like he should be in a magazine. He had the look of handsome disinterest down, too.

“I said call me Kaoru. And I know I told you I wouldn’t bother you again, Enishi, but I just need a little bit of human interaction and, well, you’re my quarantine buddy whether either of us likes it or not.” Again, she needed to force herself to be a little nicer if she was going to ask this of him, but he seemed like the kind of person who didn’t like it when people put up a front. “All I’m asking is that you come watch TV with me for a couple hours. I know you have some sort of mysterious remote work because the more I read that log you gave me the more I realized you meet with people at some truly ungodly hours so your job must keep you on call or something…”

Pinching the bridge of his nose briefly, Enishi looked down at the shuffling woman before him. She actually blushed, dammit, because it was hard to admit she needed some company and even harder to bring herself over here to beg for his in specific when she knew he was going to say no. He glanced back inside of his condo and then stepped out into the hallway while pulling his door shut.

“Two hours. And all you’re asking of me is to exist?”

Kaoru couldn’t believe her good luck and she actually started fidgeting from the sudden rush of adrenaline. “Yes! Yes, I mean, you don’t have to do anything other than breathe I promise. I just couldn’t spend another moment alone especially when my brother didn’t take any of my calls today. I mean how much can he have to do on a Thursday night?”

“It’s Saturday, Kamiya.”

Cross at her mistake, she had to stop herself from grabbing onto his sleeve and pulling him along faster all the same. “Like time has any meaning anymore!”

Kaoru orbited Enishi as he entered the condo and easily located the large tan sectional that Misao had insisted on to compliment the giant television that practically dominated an entire wall of the living room. Being the kind of person who liked to host viewing parties of premium TV or movies on demand and the like, the room was set up for maximum comfort. Kaoru quickly picked up empty water glasses and the remains of a bowl of nuts from the coffee table while breathlessly offering a cup of tea to her impromptu guest.

As she brewed the tea Kaoru wondered if maybe she should have dressed for the occasion. She was in her usual—yoga pants and a wrap shirt that Megumi had told her expressly not to buy when they had gone out one weekend before the world fell apart. While Megumi had a point that it looked like a purple sack, it was a soft and comfortable purple sack. And it moved well when she was turning herself into a pretzel on the floor while the real housewives of some city talked shit about one another in the background.

By the time Kaoru had appeared with the tea, green this time in respect to the late hour, Enishi had staked out space in the exact center of the couch. He was tall so he was probably used to taking up space, but having grown up with fighting Yahiko tooth and nail every time he crossed into her territory on the couch at home she couldn’t stop the pout from emerging. Forcing herself to recall that she had invited him, so if she had to shove herself in the corner of the couch it was her own fault, Kaoru placed the tea on a coaster in front of him and glanced at his choice of show instead.

“History channel huh. I don’t watch a lot of this. The whole idea of aliens freaks me out too much. I watch a lot of reality TV, lately anyway. Or home and garden stuff. Travel shows were nice until they got too depressing since I couldn’t go anywhere.”

Some bearded blacksmith was making a sword of some sort on screen and Enishi sipped at the tea before leaning back on the couch. “I don’t understand why a history channel might have aliens, but this seems acceptable to watch for the next hour and fifty minutes.”

That bastard had started the clock basically the moment he had closed his door! So stingy. “Makes as much sense as what’s on ‘The Learning Channel’. I’ll spare you the details.”

True to her word, Kaoru didn’t ask anything of him other than presence. All she wanted was another human being existing in proximity to her, doing something normal, like the world wasn’t figuratively and literally burning. There was plenty she didn’t know about this person, and not even all of what she knew about him she liked, but Kaoru was grateful that he was here in this moment. In the dark room, in the light of the TV, with hot tea in her belly and the television droning she felt more relaxed than she had been in weeks. It was terrible to realize she hadn’t been able to relax on her own, like she needed other people around to truly let down. Loneliness had been suffocating her.

But Enishi was here, for the moment.

So, when Kaoru woke up some unknown amount of time later with her head in his lap she supposed she shouldn’t have been so surprised. At first she thought maybe she should pretend to still be asleep, but that would require continuing to rest her head on his genitals and he probably would prefer that she didn’t, all things considered. There was continued metallic clanging from the direction of the TV, and in the darkness at this angle she could almost see the TV reflected off of his glasses.

Sitting up slowly, Kaoru pulled her hair tie out since it had gotten bunched up and lopsided while she slept. “Sorry about that. How, uh, how long was I out?”

As Enishi turned his grim visage towards her, she wasn’t sure if her mouth was dry from the tea choice, from sleep, or from some other issue. He pressed a button on the remote to bring up the display and Kaoru noted they had in fact been in the living room for over three hours. Maybe he really liked shows about swords.

“Approximately an hour, but you only assumed that position in my lap about thirty minutes ago.” How could he say it so clinically? Kaoru was embarrassed down to the tips of her painted toenails.

She was fiddling with her hair tie instead of doing anything about her hair, as if she could hide behind it. “You could have woken me up, I’m so sorry, I mean…. I would never. Well, I guess I would but not consciously.” 

Taking off his glasses and setting them next to his cold partially drunk cup of tea, Kaoru saw there was something in Enishi’s expression that gave her pause. He unzipped his hoodie half way and she felt her heart skip when she saw there was no shirt underneath. The strange light of the television brought his cut lines into stark relief.

“I don’t think I need to tell you what you did unconsciously. But I’m about to demonstrate unless you tell me no.”

Equal parts fascinated and shamed, Kaoru nodded her consent and felt a large hand slide over her thigh. Enishi tightened his grip at once, seemingly involuntarily, before giving a slow exhale and loosening his hold. He carefully slid his hand over her pants and rotated it to cup her thigh from the bottom between her leg and the couch cushion before placing his own head in her lap. A head was shockingly heavy, she realized, cheeks flaming as she wondered what Enishi had been thinking when she had snuggled up to him.

Focusing on the TV instead of the man resting in her lap, she was brought back from even a spec of distraction when his hand withdrew from under her and his head rotated so that he was face down and most definitely the one making her crotch feel hot. Only some of it was from his regulated breaths. Kaoru involuntarily shivered as her legs disobeyed her and tried to open a bit to allow him to get closer to her center.

Putting his arms down next to her, Enishi executed a rather miraculously well-done pushup given how squishy the couch was and lifted himself off of Kaoru’s lap before sitting back in his original spot as if he hadn’t just practically licked her through her yoga pants. Shivering now from both anticipation and the absence of his rather warm body, she was proud of herself for waiting the entire thirty seconds as Enishi reclaimed his glasses from the coffee table and put them on before she launched herself at him.

Quickly straddling his lap and grinding down on his now steadily growing erection, Kaoru cupped his face with her hands and licked at the seam of his lips with the tip of her tongue until he caught up to her. His hands were under Kaoru’s loose wrap shirt, outlining the muscles on her back and unclasping her bra while she dropped her hands from Enishi’s face to finish unzipping his hoodie trapped between them. She wanted to smash her modest chest against him and there were far too many clothes in the way. Her insistence on Enishi getting the jacket off was coming into conflict with his hands’ desire to map her body, so when he paused only long enough from kissing her to viciously whip it off and throw it to the side Kaoru took the opportunity to admire his chest unencumbered.

“Did I do anything else while I was asleep?” Kaoru asked with breathless hope lacing the desire in her voice.

Pupils blown and expression determined, Enishi didn’t bother to respond as he went for her neck this time. When the suction was too hard from her partner she gave a squeal and pushed at him, but he didn’t relent immediately. Bastard was marking her purposefully! He was also pulling at the back of Kaoru’s yoga pants and while she was under absolutely no false assumptions over what was about to take place between them, it just couldn’t happen on Misao and Soujirou’s couch.

“We need to take this to your bed.” When Enishi didn’t immediately do anything other than stare at her, after he finally finished whatever nefarious purpose for her neck, Kaoru wondered if somehow she had misread the man. The situation seemed pretty unambiguous, but you never knew. “That is unless you don’t wa—”

As he stood up and she began to fall backwards, before Kaoru could regain her footing he had slung her over his shoulder and was already in the hallway. She barely had had time to vocalize how very uncomfortable this position was! However, while undignified and brutish, it did in fact get the job done as he had entered his condo with her and deposited her rather roughly—truth be told—on the dim outline of a bed in a room so dark he had to have blackout curtains. She couldn’t tell if it was a queen or a king-sized bed, but she could feel that the covers were tight on the top and also soft. Of course he was the kind of man who made a bed with military precision.

Tossing off her shirt and pulling the dangling bra with it, Enishi was on her before she had a chance to really begin to shiver in his chilly bedroom. While he all but devoured her breast Kaoru attempted to wriggle out of her pants underneath him and was rewarded with a low moan as her struggles lit a fire in him. Once she was no longer occupied removing clothes, Kaoru reached around to grab a handful of an ass so firm that she had to grip hard and pull in which rather indiscreetly rubbed the tip of his cock against her entrance. And even though, based on the outline she had felt before on the couch which pretty much guaranteed some uncomfortable stretching before things got fun on her end, there was something else that made her pause.

“We need a condom,” She had to say it a couple times, and Enishi only seemed to really hear her when she grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head back from giving her more love bites in areas that she could at least hide with a shirt.

Judging from his sudden silence, and the way he was slowly withdrawing from her, she made a guess about his circumstances which either meant he wasn’t often in a situation like this or he wasn’t the kind of man that was typically asked that question.

“If you don’t have any, there are some in the other condo in the medicine cabinet,” Biting her lip in the darkness, wondering if the night was over before it reached its climax for either of them, she saw the bedroom door open and in the light from his computer room she saw a powerful naked silhouette moving purposefully.

Was the crazy idiot just walking over naked like that?! He was out of his damn mind! At least grab a towel or something or he must own a robe of some kind. It wasn’t like anything she had seen him in was complicated to put on he surely must have pulled something on before he left his own home, wouldn’t he? Were there cameras in the hallways? Oh lord, if Misao ever found out Kaoru would be hearing about this until they were so old they couldn’t remember back this far.

And before Kaoru could work herself into too much of a panic, the silhouette was back again and they were shrouded in near darkness once more. A tear of foil, and then suddenly a warm body was entwined with hers once more.

“Kaoru,” He finally spoke for the first time since this had gotten rather more real than she had expected it to, and she was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see how him saying her name had caused her to soften. “This is your chance to stop this, stop me, if you have any uncertainty.”

It was her turn to show him how deep she wanted this to go, and she shifted indicating that he should lay down under her. Once in position, she guided him inside, sinking down as quickly as she could adjust to his girth. It had been some time since she had ‘made love’ with a boyfriend whose face she couldn’t even conjure as Enishi dominated every piece of her mind. This was fucking pure and simple, but it didn’t feel as profane as she used to think sex without explicit feelings would be. Once she had taken him to the base, her hands splayed on his chest while he no doubt gripped the blanket to prevent himself from setting the pace, she leaned down and gave him a slow kiss as her hair cascaded down around them.

“Ok. I think we can start moving a little faster.” With an ‘eep’ Kaoru was flipped onto her back and with a methodical thoroughness that she would come to appreciate as the night wore on her drove into her first slowly and then with increasing ferocity. Kaoru pulled him down by the back of the neck to recapture his lips and first whisper obscenities then cry blasphemous nonsense practically next to his ear. She wasn’t usually so loud, but as their sweaty skin slid and heat gathered at her core, Kaoru decided to let go.

Whatever she could think to say to make him keep going harder and faster she said, his name a mantra until he seemed not to be able to hold on. His movements were getting erratic and even though she was close and begged him not to she felt the way his muscles locked as he thrust into her hard and stilled. Mutually panting, Kaoru sighed and leaned back, her body aching for release.

“Wait here. We’re not done.” Enishi pulled away from her and entered what must have been his master bathroom because light outlined the door cracks as Kaoru shivered and listened to the brief sound of running water. He was still naked when he joined her on the bed, but she had had enough time to become more bashful because she gave a scandalized yelp when he pulled her onto his lap. Leaning against a headboard no doubt, now with her back to his front, he reached down to touch her.

Sensitive from their prolonged activities, at first Kaoru flinched, but with a little guidance about what she needed he was stroking her back into a frenzy. She knew she was practically whining his name with every exhale but she couldn’t bring herself to care as she finally broke to pieces under his hand. Harshly, he kissed the side of her neck after she came, and Kaoru could feel his satisfaction line up with hers and smiled softly to herself as well.

“Did you really walk naked through the hallway?” She finally asked.

The snort he gave, which was the closest thing she had ever gotten to a laugh from him thus far in their association, absolutely didn’t answer the question.

*

*

*

“So is he your boyfriend?” Megumi sounded cross, which was her right given it was probably one of only a handful of days she had gotten off and she was using precious moments talking to Kaoru instead of sleeping. Sano had been doing his best to wait hand and foot on her so that she could go to work and save lives without worrying about taking out the garbage or go shopping or whatnot, but her boyfriend wasn’t really known for being detail oriented and that had probably been hit and miss. Currently he was banished to his own apartment so she could have some damn space that didn’t contain a human breathing in proximity to her, as she put it.

“No! No? No.” Kaoru knew she wasn’t processing this well. They had had sex one more time that first night before she had slunk off to shower and sleep in Misao and Soujirou’s guest room, which in fact was just Souji’s home office that had had a bed stuck in one corner for Kaoru’s housesitting duration.

“Is the sex bad, then?”

“No.” That was easy enough to answer. And she said it so fast and with such emphasis that she could hear Megumi’s smirk over the phone line. That one night had not been the only time, even if every time it had been initiated by Kaoru. At first it had been innocent enough. She had returned his discarded green hoodie, and then one thing led to another. She had finally found a package of bacon to give to him and return the favor from last week, and then one thing led to another. It wasn’t like she was wanton, or anything.

“Then why are we having this emergency call when I could be destroying a pint of ice cream in front of the TV.” Then there was a sigh. “You caught feelings, didn’t you?”

“No!” The shrill protest was all the confirmation Megumi seemed to need.

“I don’t have time for an hour of bullshit while you talk yourself in circles before you finally admit I’m right. Let’s skip to the part where you go ‘you’re right, Megumi, you’re so brilliant and insightful’ and then I can tell you just go talk to him and see if you’re compatible from the waist up as well as down.”

There was a brief silence while Kaoru tried to focus on a serene brush painting in the dining room. “I hate you, you know.”

“If that’s all, then I’m going to go hoover down that ice cream. Don’t you dare send me spoilers for the shows I recorded out of spite. Someday this quarantine will be over, and I won’t forget. Bye, girl.”

“Bye, Megumi.”

The line went silent and Kaoru thought about what Megumi had said. Yeah, she’d like to know more about Enishi rather than what she had pieced together but when she had kind of hinted questions to Misao over email she had gotten back emphatic responses with lots of exclamation points about how Kaoru should stay away from him and how Misao couldn’t go into detail why. So that was a spectacular failure from the start. Megumi’s advice was very practical, ultimately, and the only bit of advice she could potentially use.

This time when Kaoru went knocking and waiting and knocking and waiting, she was prepared with an idea. Enishi answered the door with a mask on, but the way the expression in the upper half of his face shifted to what she had started to term ‘smizing’ after having caught a marathon of a model competition, she knew he was happy to see her. The mask came off immediately, so at least she rated that level of trust.

“I have work right now, but if you return in an hour—”

Kaoru interrupted him. “Let’s have dinner.” Since that seemed to confuse him into silence, she provided more context. “I know where all your moles are but I don’t know if you’re allergic to anything. Or your middle name. Or even what you do for work.”

The smize was gone.

“Look, you don’t need to bear your soul to me, but I would like to know just a little bit more about what’s going on in your mind rather than,” She glanced down and cleared her throat. “What do you say?”

“You consider this necessary to continue our arrangement, don’t you?” He looked back at the flickering light of his computer room and then back down at Kaoru’s fiercely determined expression. “What if you find out I’m a terrible person? What if the best thing about me is something you’re already getting?” He was veritably frosty when he spoke, and Kaoru’s mind wandered to Misao’s warnings and back to Megumi’s advice like a pendulum.

This wasn’t the first time she had taken a chance on a stranger that other people had told her had a bad reputation. She might have been accused of having a complex once or twice, in fact.

“Isn’t that for me to decide? You think you can shock me, I’m sure, but I think you’ll find I’m pretty resilient.”

The pause was so long Kaoru wondered if those blue-green eyes of his could actually read thoughts. If he did she would be done for, all of her insecurities laid bare along with her unfortunately growing feelings. Hopefully she could get to know him and either exorcise her emotions or validate them. This limbo was wrecking her as surely as the limbo she lived in while socially distancing from her life.

“I’ll indulge your insanity this time, Kamiya, as I continually find myself doing… but against my better judgement.”

“Because you think I won’t be able to take it? I assure you, you’d have to try pretty hard to shock me given then kind of friends I have.” The cumulative prison time of her closest friends was actually quite impressive. As well as the variety of the charges. Her favorite was Aoshi and the little bit of time he served for liberating that animal testing facility. Those environmental crusades of his were really quite admirable.

“No,” He looked speculative, “Because you told me in rather graphic terms what your cooking is like.”

Kaoru laughed until she realized Enishi was serious, and then landed a solid punch to his arm that didn’t even make him flinch.


End file.
